Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 11-356
NASA RELEASES VISUAL TOUR OF EARTH'S FIRES
WASHINGTON -- NASA has released a series of new satellite data
visualizations that show tens of millions of fires detected worldwide
from space since 2002. The visualizations show fire observations made
by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS,
instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.
NASA maintains a comprehensive research program using satellites,
aircraft and ground resources to observe and analyze fires around the
world. The research helps scientists understand how fire affects our
environment on local, regional and global scales.
"What you see here is a very good representation of the satellite data
scientists use to understand the global distribution of fires and to
determine where and how fire distribution is responding to climate
change and population growth," said Chris Justice of the University
of Maryland, College Park, a scientist who leads NASA's effort to use
MODIS data to study the world's fires.
One of the new visualizations takes viewers on a narrated global tour
of fires detected between July 2002 and July 2011. The fire data is
combined with satellite views of vegetation and snow cover to show
how fires relate to seasonal changes. The Terra and Aqua satellites
were launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively.
The tour begins by showing extensive grassland fires spreading across
interior Australia and the eucalyptus forests in the northwestern and
eastern part of the continent. The tour then shifts to Asia where
large numbers of agricultural fires are visible first in China in
June 2004, then across a huge swath of Europe and western Russia in
August. It then moves across India and Southeast Asia, through the
early part of 2005. The tour continues across Africa, South America,
and concludes in North America.
The global fire data show that Africa has more abundant burning than
any other continent. MODIS observations have shown that some 70
percent of the world's fires occur in Africa. During a fairly average
burning season from July through September 2006, the visualizations
show a huge outbreak of savanna fires in Central Africa driven mainly
by agricultural activities, but also driven by lightning strikes.
Fires are comparatively rare in North America, making up just 2
percent of the world's burned area each year. The fires that receive
the most attention in the United States -- the uncontrolled forest
fires in the West -- are less visible than the wave of agricultural
fires prominent in the Southeast and along the Mississippi River
Valley. Some of the large wildfires that ravaged Texas this year are
visible in the animation.
NASA maintains multiple satellite instruments capable of detecting
fires and supports a wide range of fire-related research. Such
efforts have yielded the most widely used data records of global fire
activity and burned area in the world. NASA-supported scientists use
the data to advance understanding about Earth's climate system,
ecosystem health, and the global carbon cycle.
NASA's Applied Sciences Program seeks out innovative and practical
benefits that result from studying fires. For example, the program
has found ways to integrate space-based wildfire observations into
air quality models used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
that help protect public health.
NASA will extend the United States' capability to monitor and study
global fires from space with the launch this month of the National
Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory
Project, known as NPP. The satellite is the first mission designed to
collect data to increase our understanding of long-term climate
change and improve weather forecasts.
One of NPP's new, state-of-the-art science instruments will provide
scientists with data to extend the long-term global fires data
record. The satellite is targeted to launch from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California on Oct. 28. The mission is managed by NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for the Earth Science
Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington.
MODIS data are processed by the MODIS Advanced Processing System at
Goddard. The algorithm and product validation is done by scientists
at the University of Maryland. The visualizations were created at
Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio. The fire, vegetation and
snow data all come from the MODIS instruments on Terra and Aqua.
To watch the global tour of the world's fires, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/modis-10-overview.html
For regular updates on fires and their effects worldwide, visit:
-end-
To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov
To remove your address from the list, send a message to:
hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov
No comments:
Post a Comment